Lisa Gornick on Writers Truly Knowing Their Fictional Characters

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world’s leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now.

Andrew talks with Lisa Gornick, author of Ana Turns, about writing a New York City novel in the age of the Taliban and Donald Trump.

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Lisa Gornick has been hailed by NPR as “one of the most perceptive, compassionate writers of fiction in America…immensely talented and brave.” She is the author of four previous novels—most recently The Peacock Feast and Louisa Meets Bear, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, as well as Picador—and an upcoming novel, Ana Turns, to be published by Keylight Books in November, 2023. Her stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, the Wall Street Journal, and Real Simple, and have received many honors, including Distinguished Story by the Best American Short Stories. With the publication of her first novel, A Private Sorcery, Lisa Gornick was described by National Book Award Winner Colum McCann as “a new voice…that makes sense of our deep need for stories and their tellers.” Her second novel, Tinderbox, was awarded Four out of Four Stars from People and deemed “an extraordinary book, written for adults” by National Book Critics Circle Winner Joan Silber. Louisa Meets Bear received Starred Reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and an “A” from Entertainment Weekly, and was chosen as a “Fresh Pick” for book clubs by Oprah.com, the Long List for The Story Prize, and a Finalist for The 2016 Paterson Fiction Prize. The Peacock Feast was proclaimed “truly mighty” by Newsday, a “glorious chronicle” by the BBC, a “perfect novel” by the New Jersey Star-Ledger, and a “masterpiece” by Writers on Writing. Lauded by Rebecca Makkai as “Exactly the book I needed,” Meg Wolitzer described it as “One of those rare books that feel both grand and intimate.” Lisa Gornick earned a doctorate in clinical psychology at Yale and is a graduate of the writing program at NYU and the psychoanalytic training program at Columbia, where she is on the faculty. For many years, she worked in clinics, hospitals, and private practice as a psychotherapist, a profession she has depicted in various essays as based on “sacred trust.” She lives in New York City with her family.